Who is the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition?

Our mission is to reverse the trend of mass incarceration in Colorado. We are a coalition of nearly 7,000 individual members and over 100 faith and community organizations who have united to stop perpetual prison expansion in Colorado through policy and sentence reform.

Our chief areas of interest include drug policy reform, women in prison, racial injustice, the impact of incarceration on children and families, the problems associated with re-entry and stopping the practice of using private prisons in our state.

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Hopefully it will be used to help with programs and not bricks and mortarThe Denver Post

DENVER—State lawmakers said Wednesday they plan to go after Colorado's remaining budget restrictions after Gov. Bill Ritter approved a bill changing a spending limit on general fund growth, making it easier for the state to pay for colleges, prisons, welfare and other big-ticket items.

Ritter signed a measure Wednesday that does away with a requirement that any increase in the state's general budget over 6 percent a year has to go to highway construction and other building projects. Lawmakers replaced it with limits based on personal income growth, which opponents say all but eliminates the limit.

Some Republicans opposed the plan, saying it doesn't guarantee enough money for transportation.

But Rep. Don Marostica, a Republican from Loveland and a member of the Legislature's Joint Budget Committee, which sets the state's spending priorities, said lawmakers now plan to seek reform of Colorado's other spending limits, including the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, or TABOR, which limits the growth of government revenue and spending; the Gallagher Amendment, which limits residential property tax increases; and Amendment 23, which requires increased spending for public education.

3 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Instead of all the legislative gimmickery, why not just cut all government spending by at least 10 percent and lay off government workers proportionately with that of the private sector?? In more direct language get rid of the dead wood.djw

As I am reading this, all I can see is that this opens the door for the administration to chanel more money into paying for prison employees, prison expansion, etc. That is not at all what needs to be done. Instead, we need fewer prisons and fewer prison employees (definitely not any raises or bonuses for existing employees) and rather more rehabilitation and re-entry program opportunities, as well as more programs to assist improvements in the rates of recidivism. I do not, in any way, see this as a good thing, especially since it does not place restrictions or control on the arbitrary spending. If it can't go to positively effect the prison system, I'd rather see it all go to highways. We do not need a larger budget for our prisons; we need a reduced budget and a reduced need. In my opinion, prison employees are already grossly overpaid (based on educational level, experience, skills, preformance, etc).